Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Different, Part 1: Different Faith in Trials

Episode Date: August 6, 2017

In this world, you’ll have struggles. You’ll face opposition. You’ll be challenged. And there’s a reason for that: this world is not your home. So answer hate with love, find joy in the midst of trials, and rely on a strength beyond yourself. You’... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church Online. If you ever have any questions or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to Life.Church, or we'd love you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. You know, from the moment you take your first steps as a child to going through school to building a career or family or maybe even the loss of a friend or family member, it doesn't take long for you to figure out that life comes with challenges and trials.

But if we read the scriptures and listen to the teachings of Jesus, we know that we're called to be different. And our senior pastor Craig Rochelle begins a brand new message series walking us through the book of First Peter and helping us understand that when trials come, we're called to stand strong and be different. If you can hear this message, listen closely. the exiled, misunderstood or upside down. This is your message of hope. When problems come, use them. When enemies persecute you, love them. These struggles are a fire, refining you into gold. Look around. You are not forgotten. You are not alone. Challenge what is expected of you. This world. is not your home.

You are different. Hey, I need to know who came ready to have a little bit of church in the house today, all of our locations. Before we dive in, we have a little bit of celebrating to do, and I know that many of you at my location have heard some of this that I'm about to share,

but I hope you'll celebrate like you've heard it for the very first time. This weekend, we are launching in two brand new buildings, two different cities. I want to celebrate what God is doing in Fort Worth, Texas, launching in a brand new building. This is Pastor Jeremy right here, who is big enough to beat me up, but he never will, because I'm his boss, and I won't let him do that.

Pastor Jeremy, we celebrate everything that's happening there, and then on this weekend, launching the 27th Life Search location with, believe it or not, on their very first weekend, 33 people being baptized in Norman, Oklahoma, under the leadership of Pastor Brian Bruss, who is my longest tenured staff member, 21 years, Brian, has been with us since the fifth month of the church. Brian, I love you, your whole family. Also on this weekend, it's hard to believe.

But we get to be a part of over 1,200 people going public with their faith, being baptized this weekend. We celebrate. We're not just praying for a revival church. We're living in the middle of it. Every single person being baptized has a name and a story. Some of you, we held you under longer because you need it, baby, you need it. And I just, a few of the stories in Overland Park, Kansas, Curtis, we praise God for your life

transformation. Who would imagine that your wife would baptize you and celebrate with the miraculous transformation in your life? In Hendersonville, Tricia, Tennessee, we thank God for his work in you as you've come back to God. Now you're engaged fully. And then in Tulsa, Tiffany, we thank you. God, as you gave me permission. You are now addiction free. You are serving Jesus passionately,

and we celebrate you and every other story. Congratulations to you. We're launching into a brand new message series today called Different. What we're going to do is over the next few weeks is we're going to look at the book of First Peter and see how God is calling us as Jesus followers to be different from this world. So what I want to do is I want to give you the context of the book First Peter. First of all, I'll tell you who wrote first Peter. Who do you think wrote first Peter? Both of you, you're right. Peter wrote Peter, a little spoiler. And sometimes Peter, I think, gets a bad rap. Like people, when they think of Peter, they think of a guy, they say, well, he was an uneducated fisherman. It's one of the most common descriptions I hear of Peter. Just because the guy

wasn't formally educated does not mean this guy was not sharp. Some of the sharpest people I know never went to college or whatever. This guy was a businessman. He was a fisherman. He was a tremendous leader. He was passionate. He was bold. In fact, when you read his writings in First Peter, he deals with some incredibly weighty and heavy theological issues. He's writing to a group of very hurting Christians, and he talks about things like foreknowledge. He talks about divine election. He talks about sanctification. He talks about obedience. He talks about the blood of Christ. He talks about the Trinity.

He talks about revelation. The two big themes that emerge, you'll see over and over again, is he talks about the hope that we have in Christ. And then he tells us that we're called to be different from this world. To give you a little bit of context, let's talk about when it was written and kind of what was going on in the world because it's important to understand that

to really grasp the meaning of what God wants us to live and do. through this book. First Peter was written somewhere between the year 60 and 65 AD. We're not sure exactly when, but this was during the reign of a very evil and corrupt man known as Nero. Now, if you don't know much about Nero, let me just paint the picture. This guy killed his mother, he killed his first wife, and he most likely killed his second wife. This guy was so twisted that history believes that he actually burned the city of Rome. And what we do know is in July of 64 AD, this big fire broke out.

It burned for six days uncontrollably, and they couldn't put it out. On the sixth day they put it out, then it reignited, it burned another three days. And history believes that Nero started this fire because he had this insatiable lust to build. And the Senate wouldn't let him rebuild, so he just burned everything so he could rebuild it. Well, that didn't go well, evidently, whenever he had. people started to blame him for burning Rome. So he decided to blame this little group of very passionate, already hated people known as Christ ones or Christians, Jesus followers. He said, they did it. And so this already persecuted group was persecuted brutally in this season in which

Peter was writing this letter. Just to give me an idea of what Nero helped. sick he was, among other things, he actually put the animal skins on Christians. So like a dead animal, he put the skin on the Christians, then lock them into a cage and unleash a pack of wild dogs into the cage and watch them mall and destroy these Christians as he would sip wine and drink this as entertainment. This guy was so sick. He would take Christians, and you have to understand, these are real people who love their family just like you. And he would dip them in hot wax and then put them on a tree, tying their hands to a tree, light them on fire,

and burn the trees and these people like human candles to light the night skies as he would throw parties out around these suffering Christians. That is the context into which Peter was writing when he wrote the book that we're about to read. So who is this message for? This is for two groups of people. This is for those of you who are hurting right now, who have questions that are unanswered,

who have a trial, you're enduring something difficult. It might be a financial trial, it might be the loss of a job, it might be some kind of a health issue, it might be tension in an important relationship, it might be that your children are moving in a direction that you don't want. It could be emotional. It could be addiction. It's some sort of a trial. If you're going through a difficult time, this message is for you. The second group of people would be

for those who will one day go through a trial. And that would be about all of you, right? My pastor used to say you're either coming out of a trial, you're in the middle of a trial, you're going into a trial because life can be difficult. If I'm telling the truth, say amen. Life can be difficult. And so no matter what you're going through, we want to hear from God in a way that would speak to us as we're hurting, and that's the context for which we start into this very powerful book. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 1 starts this way. This is a letter from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners.

Everybody say that word aloud. They are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontius, Galatia, Capadocia, Asia, and Bethenia. The Greek word that's translated as foreigners is translated in many ways depending on what Bible you have. I printed them in your notes. This word is translated as exiles or sojourners or aliens or strangers or foreigners. In other words, Peter is saying, you need to understand and remember, this is not your home. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're a stranger to this world. You're a sojourner.

You're just passing through. You're an alien. This is not your final dwelling place. You're a heavenly creature serving a heavenly God, passing through this temporary world into an eternal dwelling place where one day you will be with God. If this world is not your home, therefore, you will be different from this world.

those of you who are followers of Christ, what does that mean? You'll have different values than those around you. You'll have different morals than other people. You'll have a different belief system. You'll be different as a mom. You'll be different as a dad. You'll be different as a husband. You'll be different than as a wife. You'll be different in the way that you raise your children, the way you relate to people. You'll be different in how you deal with someone who mistreats you. You'll be different in the way you invest your money. You'll be different in the way you spend your time. Why? Because this world is not your home. You're called to be different. And in our message today, we're going to look at what Peter is going to show us that if you're in the middle of a trial,

because this world is not your home, you can have a different kind of faith when you go through something incredibly difficult. That's what I want to do today is look at the words of this very powerful book. And we're going to look at a different faith in trials. Remember who Peter is writing to, and 1. Peter 1, verse 6 and 7, almost would appear shocking when you understand the context. He says to these hurting Christians, so be truly glad. Wow. Right?

Is anybody with me? So be truly glad. He says, because there is a wonderful joy ahead. even though you must endure many trials for a little while. In other words, God may not make these temporary trials go away, but there is a wonderful joy ahead. And then he's going to show these trials have a purpose. He says, these trials will show that your faith is what?

That your faith is genuine. Now think about this. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. genuine. If there is such thing as a genuine faith, then what would the opposite be? If there is a genuine faith, there also might be a false faith, right? In fact, this is honestly my greatest concern, and I hope at all of our churches, you'll pay really close attention to this, because in the Western world, kind of not in all parts of the world, church online, many of you in parts of the world, if you claim Christ, it could cost you a lot, including your life. I'm not talking about

places like that. And especially like in the United States, those of you in Wellington, Florida, those of you in Rio Rancho in New Mexico, those of you in Albany, New York, you're not even really my target. I'm speaking even more directly to those of you in Texas, those of you around Oklahoma, those of you in Arkansas, those of you in Kansas, kind of in the Bible belt. Sometimes in those places like where I live, it can be so easy to be a Christian that I believe many people would call themselves Christians, but they're not at all. It's a false faith. It's a false faith. If there is a genuine faith, there is also a false faith, and it is my great fear, great fear, that there are many of you who are in church semi-regular that believe you're a Christian,

but your faith is not real. Can I be that direct? Let me show you three different types of false faith, if you're taking notes. The first one would be what I call an inherited faith. This is what some of you might have. This is where we go like this. If we're talking, you might say, well, my mom was a Methodist, and my dad was a Baptist, and we went to church some, you know, Christmas and Easter and a couple other times.

And so obviously I'm a Christian, you know, like I'm not a Buddhist, I'm not a Muslim, so I must be a Christian. My parents were, my grandma was. It's an inherited faith. But it's not your faith. For example, I talked to a 19-year-old girl, and she said, I grew up in church every Sunday, every Wednesday, always in youth group. she said, now that I'm off to college, I'm not really sure I believe all this stuff.

What was she saying? It was an inherited faith. It was her parents. It was not hers. And that would be perhaps where some of you are right now. It's not a genuine faith. It's not really yours. A second type is what I would call a shallow faith. It's a shallow faith. Jesus talked about this in a story that he told in Matthew chapter 13. You can read about it if you want. He said, a sower or a farmer went out to sow some seed, to plant some seeds. And he said, some of the seeds took root and a little plant sprung up. But the roots didn't grow deep enough. It was shallow faith. So Jesus said, when the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the love for the things of this world came along, it choked out this little plant

and it died. Why? Because the roots weren't deep enough. And that, again, is where some of you are. In fact, if I can just be real honest, and I don't want to be like a prophet of doom, but this is true. Six months from now, there are some of you that are happy to be here today that you will not be here, you will not be in any church, you will not be reading the Bible, you will be hurting, you'll be afraid, you'll be lost in some addiction. There will be no spiritual power and no spiritual victory, and that is absolutely incompletely true. I've seen it over and over and over again because you've got no real roots to keep you deep. It's the way it is. This church has never been as quiet it is right now.

And so maybe I'm stepping on some toes. So it's the truth. You won't be here. You're here. You're kind of excited. You won't be here six months from now. Let me explain it this way. People confess things to me all the time.

Strangers. It's like the weirdest thing. They confess things to me. They just like, blah, blah, and they tell me things. Like, I'll just, they vomit on me. Okay. I have respect for the Catholic tradition. Do I look like a Catholic priest?

No, I'm not a Catholic priest, but people just confess things to me, okay? Amy and I went into this restaurant, and this 19 or 20-year-old waiter came up, and he was really excited to see. He's like, oh, my gosh, you're my pastor. I love you. Oh, my gosh, I love your church.

I mean, I go to church all the time. And then he just tried to confess. He's like, okay, I'm lying. I haven't been in two years. I haven't been. I was going, but then I got busy, and I got debt, got in school, so I had to work, and I, you know, I can't go because I work on Sunday mornings.

And I know there's a Sunday night that I don't go on Sunday night, why? Because I'm living with my girlfriend, and I feel so guilty because we're smoking pot. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's true stories like, blah. I'm just trying to order an appetizer, okay, man. You know, we'll pray for you later. And, I mean, this guy is low on me. And I said to him and said, hey, look, look, look, look, look.

Do you want to be close to God? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to be close to God. to God. So let's come Sunday night and then what I want you to do is I don't want you to do there because that's not going to give you the strength you need for seven days to fight the devil. So let's get involved somewhere and take a step forward. Let's get it. And this is why we talk about all the time, a life group, because this is really what I believe is the purest form of the church. The disciples acts as they met house to house. That we get together midweek and we have a community people that we do life with. And this helps our roots grow deeper. You say, well, but there's

going to be weird people. Yes, there's always a weird person in every life group. It's a principal. There's always one. If you say, no, there's not one in my life group. There is. And you may say, you may argue all day long. There's always one. There's not one in my group. Yes, there is. That would be you. There's one in every group. And you have to deal with weird people, and you have to forgive people that hurt you. And you have to deal with things that you don't like it. And it moves you out of self into others. And you get in this community where you're studying God's word and you're praying for each other and you're caring for each other. And when you start to stray like, no, no, no, get back here. Get back here. Get back here. Where Jesus followers

and your roots grow deep. This is one of the most important things. Listen, there's somebody here. You need to seem to hear this. You're kind of here and you kind of come and you're kind of in. You need to take a step forward before the devil takes you out. Let me say it again. You need to take a step forward before the devil takes you out because I don't want you six months from now hiding some addiction, marriage screwed up, kids hurting, doubting, far from God, because you need the strength of God's people. Church is not listening to a podcast. Church is the body of Christ where we gather corporately to worship God,

strengthen one another, to attack the world with the love of Jesus. This really matters to God. Jesus died for the church. He's returning for the church. He said, I will build my church. The church matters to Jesus. therefore it matters to us. We're not going to have a shallow faith.

The third thing is a conditional faith. It's those who would say, I believe in God, I love God, I love God, I believe in God, as long as things go my way, right? This is some of you. You know people like this. I talked to a guy at the gym. He said, my wife left me, I lost my job. How can I believe in a God who would allow that to happen?

That is a conditional faith and that is a false faith. There are those of you that you have a false faith, and I believe that God brought you here today to change that to a genuine faith, trials can reveal the depth of your faith. If you're going through a difficult time, some of you may say, well, my faith is being tested right now.

My faith is being tested. How is it that God uses our trials? Two different ways. Number one, trials reveal your faith. Trials reveal your faith. Let's look at it again. First Peter 1-7. These trials will show that your faith

is genuine. I love to say it this way. A faith that's been tested is a faith that can be trusted. A faith that's been tested is one that can be trusted. In fact, that was Peter. He had been tested, even failed a little bit, strengthened, regrouped, redeemed, made new, and he was completely transformed. In fact, let me show you back maybe 25 years prior to Peter writing this book. So go back a couple of decades, and he had this conversation with Jesus that was recorded in Luke's Gospel, Luke 22, verse 31 and 32. Jesus said to him, Simon, Simon, Simon Peter, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. In other words, Satan wants to test you. Satan wants to see what you're made of. Listen, all of our churches, don't ever for a moment think that your spiritual enemy is not scheming to take you

away from the things of God. Don't ever think for a moment he's not attacking. Satan wants to sift you like when. He wants to test you. What are you made of, Peter? Jesus says, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. Trials reveal your faith. And when you've turned back, in other words, you're not going to always get it right, Peter, but when you've turned back, strengthen your brothers. How did God use the trial? to transform Peter. Think about this. In the early years, let's be honest,

Peter was kind of obnoxious. He was very inconsistent. He was hot-headed. He was rash. In the later years, what was he? He was incredibly bold. He was incredibly tenacious. He was full of faith.

What happened? God used the trials to strengthen him. What was one of the big trials? Well, Peter was always shooting off at the mouth, and he said one time to Jesus, hey, if all those other loser disciples deny you, I never will. I'm your guy, I got your back. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.

John, you can't trust him, but you can trust me. Then what happened? Not one time, not two times, but three times Peter denied Jesus. One of the times it was to a little girl. Do you know Jesus? I don't know, never heard of him. A second grade girl with a Snoopy lunch bun. Do you know, no, no, I never met him in my life, okay?

He sees the eyes of Jesus and his heart tripped out. Jesus brutally dies on the cross for Peter's sins and for our sins. Three days later, the stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen. In John 21, you see this meaningful encounter between the risen Christ and Peter. And Jesus said, do you love me? Yes, do you love me?

And he gives them an assignment, feed my sheep. What happened shortly after that? Peter, the guy who messed up, was the guest preacher on the day of Pentecost, when 3,000 people were born into the kingdom of God. What happened? God used the trials to strengthen his faith, to change him to who he was becoming. Trials can reveal and strengthen your faith. That's why James, the brother of Jesus, even said this in James 1-2.

He said, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. whenever you face trials of many kinds. If you're in a trial, you can count it all as joy because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. In other words, God's going to use it. God's doing something in it. If you're racked with pain right now, what I hope that you'll understand is that there is a purpose in your pain.

My God will never waste a hurt. He's always working in it. He is always for you. He always loves you and he is always good. Trials reveal your faith. The second thing I hope you'll see is this. That trials can draw you closer to God. Trials can draw you closer to God.

First Peter 1, 8, and 9 tells us this directly. And I want you to watch the power of the language, the imagery that Peter, uses. He says this. He says, you love God even though you've never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him. And watch this. And he says, now remember who he's writing to? These are people that, you know, maybe their cousin just got burned as a candle the night before. That's how, this is how dark it is. He says, he says, and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. A glorious, inexpressible joy. A joy that can only come from heaven. A joy for which we do not have the words in our human vocabulary to adequately describe this heavenly

the emotion that settles our soul, that calms our mind that gives us a peace beyond our human ability to understand. But even though you're grieving, even though you're hurting, even though you're afraid, even though it's dark, even though they may be coming to get you, you can still have this glorious, inexpressible joy. And then he says, the reward for trusting in him will be the salvation of your souls. The reward will be the salvation of your souls. Notice this. That's what we call the gospel. What is the gospel? That is the good news of who Jesus is. What I hope you'll understand is the good news is not that God saves us from our trials. The good news is that God saves us from our sins. And somebody better help me at this point because this is really, really good news.

God never ever said that I will deliver you from all your troubles. He never said you won't have migraine headaches. He never ever said you won't have financial difficulties. He never ever said that you won't have a person at work that drives you crazy and makes you want to blow them away. He never said any of that. In fact, Jesus said the exact opposite. In John 1633, Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart for I have overcome the world. The good news is not that he saves us from our trials. The good news is that he saves our souls and forgives us of our sense. That is the best news of all time. Then someone would say, but, but Craig, but God will never give you more than you can handle. God will never give you more than you can handle.

God would never ever give you more than you can handle. That is a misinterpretation of a verse that says God will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But the Bible never ever says God won't give you more than you can handle. I'm absolutely convinced that God will often allow you to have more than you can handle because that teaches you to depend on him. When you're hurting, you draw close to him. When you're desperate, you call on him. Because let's be honest, for those with a false faith, the moment life is okay, you don't need him, you just do life without him. I am convinced there are times when God will allow you to be weak because in your weakness, his strength is made perfect. God will allow you to get to a place where you are so low,

all you can do is look up to him and he will find him and he will be good. And when you press into him, you too can experience a glorious, inexpressible joy. I'm just curious. Am I preaching okay today? Is this connected? Okay, you don't have to clap from me. Let me just tell you where this comes from. Personal experience.

Personal experience. I can't tell you how many times that I've been back in my little room getting ready, fighting off the tears in the last year, and just come out and preach my brains out and go back and hurt. And let me explain to you why. And those of you who are on the inside, meaning you don't have shallow faith, but you come to worship nights.

If you were at a worship night, Amy and I stood up here and cried before. Actually, I cried, and she stood there strong. I blabbed, you know, this ugly cry. I talked to you about my daughter, Mandy. And she's my second daughter. She's 21. She got married when she was 20. I told her it was entirely too young to get married.

almost for bitter, and she told me that that was how old her mom was when I married her. I'm like, okay, fine. Right? And she married a great guy, and we love him dearly. And let me show you some pictures of Mandy, just so you'll understand. This is my, I took Mandy to Denver. It was my last trip with her alone before she got married. And this is her husband, James, great, great guy, youth pastor at one of our churches.

This is Mandy at the Mayo Clinic, where she just was a couple of weeks ago. And the reason she was at the Mayo Clinic is because right before her wedding a year and several months ago, she got mononucleosis. And she never recovered. She got over mono, but her body never recovered. And so she can come to one shirt service on some weekends. She couldn't come to two. She can go to the grocery store one day and she has to stay home the next day and rest. And so we looked at the best doctors, best doctors.

and they couldn't diagnose it. We don't know what's going on. And so we thought, you know, another month, surely, and she'll get to go back to work. Another month, surely, she'll be better. Another month, surely, her body won't be wracked with pain. Another month, month, month, month, month. And finally, I'm like, man, this could be really, really serious.

And I said, I'm paying and you're going. Get on a plane with your husband. Go to Mayo Clinic. And we're going to have the best doctors in the nation, check you out. So this is weighing on me. the night before that we finally got a diagnosis, I had a dream that Mandy died.

And so I went in the other room. I didn't tell Amy. I just cried, cried and cried and cried and cry, cry. I texted her at five in the morning. Are you okay? She didn't respond. It's five in the morning. She's asleep.

Like, respond, respond, respond. You know, finally she did. And this has been weighing on me like that. And so she got a diagnosis. And the really good news is that it's not life-threatening, which was our real fear. Okay, we praise God for that. And so we have a plan, and the doctors tell us it could take years, but we think we can get her back to a good and healthy place. And I believe in a God that it can do miracles.

I believe it'll be faster than years. I still have faith. In the middle of this, right before Mandy went to Mayo, you know, she's in pain every day. And you know how it is when you're a parent. like I'd give anything to be in that place and take it for her. I said, baby, do you still have hope? And she smiled bigger than you can imagine. She said, Daddy, I always have hope in Jesus.

She said, hope's my middle name. And it is, Amanda Hope. It's her middle name. And I've just watched this girl, and I've seen what it's done in my marriage. And at the same time, it's been one of the harder seasons in our life. It's been one of the most intimate seasons with the goodness of our God. And precious Mandy started making YouTube videos that now's got over a thousand subscribers that are people around the world that are facing chronic illnesses. And she's not just helping minister to them, but she's pointing them to Jesus and seeing God use her greatest trial to make a difference.

Here's what I want you to understand. Is our faith is not in what we see. Our faith is in who God is. You say it again. Our faith is not in what we see. Our faith is in who God is. And at the same time, we hurt because it's real. And in the same time, we have human fears because we are human.

We have supernatural faith in the goodness of God. And what I want to understand is we have, in my house, in my family, a glorious, inexpressible joy that can only come from heaven. so if you're here today and you're hurting you are here because god loves you take a step toward him when you draw near to him he will draw near to you and god loves you so much that he brought you here to help you understand that you're not experiencing a trial because you're bad or you did something wrong but he can actually use the trial to strengthen you conform you to the image of his Jesus, and you may never be the same as you trust in him. All of our churches, let's take a moment

and pray together. Father, I ask today that you would do a work that only you can do to bring healing God, especially to those who are hurting. All of our churches, nobody looking around. I want to talk to those of you that are hurting. You might have a financial situation. You might have a physical condition. It might be somebody that you love. It might be relational. It might be spiritual questions. It might be emotional. It might be some type of an addiction, but you say I'm facing a challenge, a trial, and I need prayer today. At all of our churches, if that's you, would you lift up your hands high right now? Just lift them up high all over the place. God, I thank you today, not just that there's hurting people. I thank you that there's hurting people together in your presence. And God, we

rejoice with those who rejoice and we mourn with those who mourn. And today, God, we just, we hurt with those that are hurting. But God, we also hope with those who have hope in your son, Jesus. And today, God, we ask that you would do a miracle in our hearts. Draw us close to you. We thank you, God, that even in the middle of the most severe trials, there is an inexpressible and glorious joy for those who know you. God, in the middle of a trial, may we experience a peace that goes beyond our human ability to understand, that our faith is not in what we see. Our faith is in who you are, God. help us to trust in you.

Though we don't see you, we still trust in you. We thank you that you're good. I pray God today for miracles. I pray for Mandy. I speak the name of Jesus over her. I believe by face you will be healed. I pray for miracles and physical bodies at churches all across our world. God, I pray for financial provision.

I pray for relational restoration. God, we ask that you would do miraculous works. And between our prayer and the time we see it, we choose to trust in you. And we thank you, God, that you are real. You are here. You are with us. and you are ministering this glorious, indescribable peace to our souls that we would be different, God,

because we have been with you. All of our churches, as you continue praying today, there are those of you that you're going to realize you have a false faith. It's not real. It's not deep. It's not sincere. It's not yours. It may be inherited. It might be conditional.

It might be whatever it is. You recognize, I've got a false faith. You are here today, not by accident, but it's time to put your faith in God. pastors, I'm calling an audible right now adjust. I want everyone to look up here right now. Nobody looking down. Every head up, every eye open today. And all of our churches right now, there are those of you you recognize that you are not

fully following Christ. There are some of you, you may even appear to be a Christian. Everybody thinks you are, but you recognize you don't have real roots. You don't have real faith. Today, what I'm going to ask you to do is to go public before everybody else and say, I need Christ and I commit my life to Him. Jesus said, if you confess me before people, I will confess you before my God. in heaven. If you do not confess me, I will not confess you. At all of our churches, there are those of you,

you recognize you need Christ. Some of you, they think you're following him, but you realize you are not. Others of you, you may look like you're really far from God and say, how could I ever take a step toward him? You come to him as you are. You are here today because he loves you. When you call on the name of Jesus, who is perfect in every way, died and rose again, he will hear your prayer, he will forgive your sins. He will make you brand new. You're not a better version of you. You're a different. version of you. He will completely forgive you. You become a new person in Christ. And all of our churches, those who say, yes, that's me. I don't care who's watching. I need his grace. I need his forgiveness. I want genuine faith today. I go public. I give my

life to him. Lift your hands right now, all of our churches. Can somebody give glory to God right here? Can somebody praise God right here? Can somebody thank God for hands all over the place, transformed lives all over the place. Lift them high. We praise God. Lift them high. We praise God. I need Christ. I need Christ. I need Christ. Somebody ought to pray louder than that. I need Christ.

I give my life to him. I trust him to save me. We are not praying for revival life church. We are living in the middle of one right now. We worship you, God. We praise your name. Everybody pray with those around you. Pray Heavenly Father, take my life.

I give it to you. Jesus saved me. Forgive me. Make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, serve you, and follow you. Help me be different from this world. So I completely live for you. My life is not my own.

I give it to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Would you please help me worship God? Would you please help me thank him for new life in Christ Jesus? As a church, it's an honor for us to play even a small part. in all that God is doing in your life. And honestly, we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be,

an easy thing you can do is go to life.church slash next. But I'll let you know an easy next set for all of us is to get plugged into a life group because we're called to be different, it's tough to be different alone. In fact, Pastor Craig has actually created additional content to go along with a series different that you and your life group can walk through.

You can access that information anytime throughout the week on YouTube or the Life Church app. This is Life in 60, a look back at July of 2017. On July 8, the U-Version Bible app wrapped up the half-year Bible challenge, where we encourage people to take the halfway mark of 2017 as a fresh start with God's Word. In an overwhelming response, over 21 million days of Bible plan content were completed by people around the world. Our annual hit summer series at the movies also wrapped up, but not without a record-breaking kingdom impact for our church. You're going to flip around with me. Check this out.

It is a completely different experience. He's searching for you, and he promises that if you search for him, you will find him. We saw an average of over 95,000 people in attendance at all of our Life Church locations, and over 230,000 unique visitors to church online, but the best part of all, we witnessed over 4,200 people commit their lives to Christ. And now you're caught up with Life in 60. For those of you connected with Life Church, thank you, thank you, thank you, for living on our mission of leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ.

God truly is using you as we help people around the world find God and find life.